Bogotá, Colombia – The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned four Colombian individuals and four organizations which it accuses of funneling mercenaries to fight in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
The sanctions, announced on Tuesday, aim to dismantle an international network allegedly recruiting and training Colombian nationals to fight alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Sudanese militia accused of grave human rights abuses in the bloody internal conflict.
Hundreds of former Colombian military personnel have been deployed alongside the RSF since September 2024, serving in a range of capacities from operating drones to training child soldiers, according to the Treasury.
“Treasury is targeting a network that recruits fighters for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),” said John K. Hurley, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement yesterday.
“The RSF has shown again and again that it is willing to target civilians—including infants and young children. Its brutality has deepened the conflict and destabilized the region, creating the conditions for terrorist groups to grow,” continued the communiqué.
The Treasury sanctioned four individuals and four organizations linked to mercenarism in Sudan.
Sanctioned individuals and organizations
Álvaro Andrés Quijano Becerra, International Services Agency (A4SI)
Quijano is a dual Colombian-Italian national and ex-Colombian army officer residing in the United Arab Emirates, a key backer of the RSF. He is the co-founder of Bogotá-based International Services Agency (A4SI), which the Treasury described as “the main recruiting node” for Colombian mercenaries.
Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, Global Staffing S.A.
The wife of Quijano, Oliveros is the owner and manager of A4SI, according to the Treasury. She was also the president and treasurer of Global Staffing S.A., a Panamá-based staffing agency linked to A4SI which the Treasury claims was used “to minimize A4SI’s legal exposure and obfuscate the links between A4SI and the company hiring the Colombian fighters.”
Mateo Andrés Duque Botero, Maine Global Corp S.A.S.
Duque is a dual Colombian-Spanish national who is an executive at several firms in Colombia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He manages Bogotá-based company Maine Global Corp S.A.S., which “manages and disburses funds” for Global Staffing and A4SI. The firm reportedly runs payroll for Colombian mercenaries and was associated with wire payments worth millions of dollars in 2024 and 2025.
Mónica Muñoz Ucros, Comercializadora San Bendito
Muñoz is also associated with Maine Global Corp as well as managing Comercializadora San Bendito, based in Bogotá. She was sanctioned for her leadership role in financing illegal mercenary networks.
What do the sanctions mean?
The sanctioned individuals and organizations will now face a total freeze on all their assets in the U.S. and all United States citizens or people in the U.S. are barred from engaging in transactions with them. The Treasury hopes the measures will slow the flow of Colombian fighters to Sudan.
But Colombian news outlet La Silla Vacía, whose investigation exposed the role of Colombian soldiers in the war in Sudan, reports that as many as 2,000 fighters from the South American nation are already stationed there. Their fate remains unclear.
Featured image description: Soldiers of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) redeploy to form a new Joint Integrated Unit (JIU) battalion with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), under the terms of the agreement of the Abyei road map.
Featured image credit: United Nations Photo via Flickr
